What best to do with limited amount of topsoil.

I have been really lucky and sourced some free topsoil. All I have to pay for is the diesel to haul it here. As I have mentioned (moaned about) before on here I am trying to reinstate a bit of field which is just under 1/2 acre. From what I have been told there won't be enough topsoil to cover all of the area to a depth of around 4 inches which I would like. Am I best to put a good depth of topsoil on some of the area and leave the rest with none or spread it thinly over the whole area? Maybe @Redwing you might be able to help as you have already been most helpful with your knowledge. No luck with getting any manure from neighbouring farms but still on the hunt.

 

Humm....a conundrum. Is the base well drained? You said in earlier posts that it was subsoil but that it was also full of stones.

 

4" is not going to make much of a difference I think.
Is it good quality top soil?
"Reinstate" silu? What condition is it in and what do you want to do with it? Does it really need additional top soil?
I would prefer to add manure

 

Not really very sure @Redwing as the site was only cleared at the end of April and apart for a couple of really wet days it's been pretty dry. The current "base" is a mixture of stone subsoil and quite a lot of builders sand! The site did have paths with gravel and then sand and then slabs on them. The slabs were taken off but the gravel sand and subsoil,stone all got mixed up when the massive JCB was breaking up the foundations of the kennels and concrete steps. All I do know is that after 3 weeks of stone picking the ground is still very stony and it's quite difficult to get a garden fork to go in at all. That said weeds are growing quite well in places and I have a very "attractive" display of Rosebay Willow Herb growing happily on the site.
The good news is the site is on a slope so should drain well enough. Below the area is part of my garden and the grass on the slope drains very well but then that doesn't have the same mess underneath.
Would 4 inches of topsoil not be enough for pasture mix grass to take @Verdun? I am not trying for a beautifully stripped lawn just something which won't look too shabby and add to the grazing we already have. I know the field where the topsoil is coming from. Someone I know built a house on this field about 2 years ago so presume it will be the topsoil that was taken off the site then. The field has had sheep on it for at least the last 10 years but as for how good it is I don't know (not seen it yet) but it HAS to be better than what there is currently, it couldn't possibly be worse! The site has already had a manure heap hurled on it, the heap was about 10ft x 10ft x 5ft so not enormous and didn't go very far but better than nothing.I know what i would like to achieve ground wise as it's just basically gardening on a large scale but don't want to have to spend too much on this. It has already cost £2500 to demolish what was there and that was a really good price as there was an awful lot of concrete to get rid of and it took a 13 tonne tracked JCB 4 days to break everything up and uproot 3 enormous tree stumps as well.
Just want to try and make a reasonable job and not waste grass seed by sowing it on ground that just won't support it.

 

I wish you could take my topsoil! I have about 3/4 of a tonne, all ready to uplift in bags, but cannot get rid of it for free on Gumtree. Had one person who cancelled, looks like it might have to go to the dump....

 

I'd take it like a shot but I'm in the East and you are in the West, typical.

 

If I had your quandary silu, I would put lots of the soil on part of the ground and make the most of it. Use it to create something special so there is more incentive to do the next bit ...if and when.

I liken this situation to the one where looking at the whole patch is just too overwhelming, but concentrating on one little corner brings huge reward quite quickly.

 

Pity... if I had a trailer I would have brought it over! I completely agree with Tetters. That way part of your ground will have a solid amount of topsoil for growing. However I'm no expert so if all you are after is a grass covering maybe spreading it thinly would work.

Have you tried Gumtree for topsoil? When I posted my ad I saw several other ads for topsoil too (some free).

 

Deciding what you want to do with the field would help Silu.
Have you a plan?
Agree with Tetters about using the top soil in generous quantities in certain areas.....making "rooms" with different requirements.
Grasses, heathers, lavendars and others will grow in poor stoney soil and look very impressive so maybe areas of these???

 

Thanks for the input all. Perhaps I haven't made things very clear re the area. and it's intended use now. I am very lucky and already have a huge garden of about 1 to 11/2 acres which is WELL big enough for me with old age beginning to raise it's ugly head.
The area in question is going to be added to grazing fields so it doesn't have to be of garden type quality. That said I would like to try and make the area as good as possible. I might also try some more fruit trees in it (would obviously concentrate the hardest in those spots and use loads of soil. The area is south facing so thought of growing some plum trees and section them off so the neddy doesn't munch them. I had fantastic plums in a previous garden but only have Apples and a pathetic useless Pear tree here which produces zero (maybe earmarked for firewood thing winter ) in my garden now. Not sure how long tho it takes for Plums to produce a decent crop? The ones in the previous house were ancient and groaned with fruit every year if the frost didn't catch the blossom at the critical time.
Love your ideas @Verdun. if I was 20 years longer.........
Off to have a look on Gumtree @Irmemac never thought of that thanks.

 

@silu : These are my thoughts. It seems to me from your various posts that you live in a very nice part of rural Scotland and have creatively made a large and very nice garden over 16 years. But it has had next to it redundant old unattractive buildings which you have now cleared at a bargain price (well done!) and want to return it to pasture. You are not bothered too much about the fertility but you want it to be successful and look attractive. Have I understood correctly?

We are coming to the end of a six year building project renovating redundant farm buildings into houses. It's been a mammoth project and we were faced with breaking up concrete and knocking down buildings too. And most of that space is now lawns and garden. We were able to source top soil and manure. Like you there was an enormous pile of rubble to get rid of. Once cleared we put down topsoil and manure and rotavated it in. We have a strong worker. I think 4" is enough for topsoil depth but I would suggest you rotavate it with a push rotavator or cultivate it in using a small tractor. The ground will be pretty compacted I would have thought with buildings, concrete and paths on it and a big digger having gone over it. Rotavating will bring up some of the underlying stones so do it shallowly and then hand pick out the biggest. The builders sand won't be a problem IMO. Most of the stones will be buried by the soil and if not big it won't matter much. You are not trying to create a Wimbledon style lawn!.....more a rough pasture as I understand it. Half an acre is quite big. How will you sow it, by hand? And then rake it in. With a few people, that would be doable and it could be done in stages.

On the areas we did, and we did them in stages, the quality of the topsoil we used varied. Grasses will establish more quickly with the best topsoil but after a couple of years you can't really tell.

Have you thought about grass seed mixes? I wonder if there are any Scottish grass seed companies which do a Scottish mix, sheeps fescue and such like. I think this is an exciting project. Good luck.

I'll try to dig out some pictures of the mess we had and then what it looks like now.

 

Some before and after pictures.

 

If your short of manure try your local sewage treatment works as they may have some soil conditionor (waste treated poo)

 

Got it spot on @Redwing. You have described the "problem" exactly. I couldn't have put it better myself. Yes the kennels were still in usable condition complete with heating and double glazing! when we moved here but we didn't use them,. Then an enormous 200 year old plus Beech fell down in a gale and went straight through the middle of the kennels. The Beech wood kept us warm for about 2 years and the kennels were wrecked. We kept meaning to do something with them and never did. You know what it's like...path to heaven being paved with good intentions!
Great to see the photos and yes my soil and what you had to contend with a very similar. Lovely job on renovating the outbuilding, looks lovely.
I have sown small patches with seed over the years and used stuff called Pasture mix which is about as strong a grass as you are going to get as far as I know. I'll do some research on whether there are any Scottish grass seed sellers, very good idea.
So are you suggesting that I get the topsoil and then rotavate it into what's there? but only to a shallow depth? Maybe I would be best to just do as much as I can with the available topsoil and leave a section if not enough and hurl manure over that for the next year!
Well @Jiffy that is SOME suggestionOMG the farmer who owns the field next door got some "soil conditioner" a la human poo a few year back. Good god the whole area smelt like a swimming pool and you couldn't go outside for days as the chlorine hurt you eyes. I really don't fancy this grey sludge stuff being spread quite close to my house and I am fond of our old horse,. the thought of him having to eat grass fertilised by some unknown human....yuk! Also I think by law you are meant (farmer didn't) to plough it in pretty much straight away. We aren't a farm and don't have all the necessary equipment.
I am off to see the topsoil this weekend so hopefully it looks good and there is plenty them my never ending stone picking will be reduced to just getting the biggest off the surface rather than as I have been doing and removing down about 4 inches which is soul destoyingly slow and tedious.
Hopefully i can achieve something even 1/2 as good as what you have redwing. How long after photo 1 was the lovely photo 2 taken. Hope it wasn't 6 years as if it takes that long I'll be pushing up daisies by then!!!

 

I am suggesting rotavating the topsoil in to what's already there to a shallow depth. It is bound to be compacted and will need loosening up. That's what we did.

The barn is 220 years old and timber framed and we now live in it. The before pictures were taken in 2011 and the after ones today but the grass was quick to establish; looked pretty good after a year. Hedging and trees took longer of course.